Temporal Power: A Study in SupremacyCorelli, Marie
Philosophy
Temporal Power: A Study in Supremacy
Corelli, Marie
Religious fiction
“Come o’er the sea
_Cushla ma chree_!--
Mine through sunshine, storm and snows!--
Seasons may roll,
But the true soul,
Burns the same wherever it goes;
Let fate frown on, so we love and part not,
‘T is life where thou art, ‘t is death where thou art not!
Then come o’er the sea,
_Cushla ma chree_!
Mine wherever the wild wind blows!”
Then waking with a violent start, he wondered what set of brain-cells
had been stirred to reproduce rhymes that he had, or so he deemed, long
ago forgotten. And still musing, he almost mechanically went on with the
wild ditty.
“Was not the sea
Made for the free,
Land for Courts and chains alone!--
Here we are slaves,
But on the waves,
Love and liberty are our own!”
“This will never do!” he exclaimed, leaping from his bed; “I am becoming
a mere driveller with advancing age!”
He went to the window and looked out. It was about six o’clock in the
morning,--the sun was shining brightly into his room. Before him lay the
sea, calm as a lake, and clear-sparkling as a diamond;--not a boat was
in sight;--not a single white sail on the distant horizon. And in the
freshness and stillness of the breaking day, the world looked but just
newly created.
“How we fret and fume in our little span of life!” he murmured. “A few
years hence, and for us all the troubles which we make for ourselves
will be ended! But the sun and the sea will shine on just the same--and
Love, the supremest power on earth, will still govern mankind, when
thrones and kings and empires are no more!”
His thoughts were destined to bear quick fruition. The morning deepened
into noon--and at that hour a sealed dispatch brought by a sailor, who
gave no name and who departed as soon as he had delivered his packet,
was handed to the King. It was from the Crown Prince, and ran briefly
thus:--
“At your command, Sir, and by my own desire, I have left the country
over which you hold your sovereign dominion. Whither I travel, and how,
is my own affair. I shall return no more _till the Nation demands my
service_,--whereof I shall doubtless hear should such a contingency ever
arise. I leave you to deal with the situation as seems best to your good
pleasure and that of the Government,--but the life God has given me
can only be lived once, and to Him alone am I responsible for it. I am
resolved therefore to live it to my own liking,--in honesty, faith and
freedom. In accordance with this determination, Gloria, my wife, as in
her sworn marriage-duty bound, goes with me.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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